Farmers tipped to save under new fire levy

The Member for Benalla, Bill Sykes, says he is confident the Fire Services Property Levy will save residents and farmers money.

From July 1, a fire levy on building and contents insurance will be removed and the new levy collected with council rates.

Mr Sykes says for residential households, the average fire services levy will come down from about $260 a year to about $140.

He says he expects farmers will also be better off.

"For primary producers their levy will come down many hundreds if not thousands of dollars because the new levy rate will be set at 31 cents per $1,000 capital improved value which is well down on the 51 cents per $1,000 that the original calculations were done on 12 months ago," he said.

The Victorian Farmers Federation's Peter Tuohey says the cost for primary producers will be much lower than initially proposed.

"Well, I think it'll be quite a reduction in the amount of Fire Service Property Levy that they have to pay," he said.

"So certainly the way it was initially proposed, the valuation was way too high."

Meanwhile, the State Opposition has welcomed news of improved radio services for Country Fire Authority (CFA) crews but says important concerns about their use remain.

The Victorian Government has announced a deal to switch crews' radios from analogue to digital, which will allow all rural brigades to speak directly to emergency call centre operators.

The Government says the new system will also mean improved communications with police and ambulance.

However, the Opposition's emergency services spokesman, Jacinta Allan, says there are still problems to be addressed.

"The interoperability of these radio systems between the emergency services, like the CFA, DSE [Department of Sustainability and Environment] and the SES [State Emergency Service] - this was a recommendation that came out of the Bushfires Royal Commission and it's one that continues to be not addressed adequately," she said.